Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Homelessness in rural and suburban America is straining shelters this winter as the economy founders and joblessness hovers near double digits — a "perfect storm of foreclosures, unemployment and a shortage of affordable housing," in one official's eyes.

"We are seeing many families that never before sought government help," said Greg Blass, commissioner of Social Services in Suffolk County on eastern Long Island.

"We see a spiral in food stamps, heating assistance applications; Medicaid is skyrocketing," Blass added. "It is truly reaching a stage of being alarming."

I guess this is "hope and change" Obama style. The stimulus was supposed to fix all this but instead things just keep getting worse.

The Democrats' response is essentially that it would have been much worse without the stimulus, but even if we had 50% unemployment the Democrats could always say things could have been worse.

But maybe things will get better this year. After all, much of the stimulus money--money that we were told must be spent immediately if we were to avoid financial collapse--has yet to be spent. Since this is an election year, however, you can bet that much more of that money will be spent this year--not to stimulate the economy so much as to stimulate Democrats' re-election chances.

About Me

I am a library director, Bible professor, and ordained pastor with masters' degrees in library science and theological studies, and a doctor of philosophy in religion and society. This blog contains some of my articles, essays and posts.